"The individual workers didn't do anything that put the decedent at any greater risk of harm than he was already in," Assistant Attorney General Mark Donnelly argued in U.S. District Court.

The boy's mother, Rebecca Jasinski of Saginaw, filed a lawsuit that faulted CPS workers who kept Elmer Braman in his father's home, even after the father was convicted of abusing two older sons. A month before the deaths, an assistant prosecutor, Misty Davis, told CPS that the father "literally 'shocked' his older boys with a cattle prod repeatedly. ... In my opinion, there is no justification for the youngest boy to remain in the care of this man."

District Judge Robert Jonker refused Donnelly's request to dismiss the lawsuit, but said the allegations could be difficult to prove.

"I think it's a really difficult case as a matter of law," he said. "The plaintiffs, in my view, have a high hill to climb here."

He said protective services workers, in "very volatile and difficult real-life situations," have to be able to make tough calls -- even make mistakes -- without having the threat of a lawsuit over them. But, he noted, it is hard to ignore the "terrible outcome."

Donnelly said CPS worker Sheri Tyler, who did not believe the boy to be at risk with his dad, was not required by law to file a petition for jurisdiction of the boy. Even if she filed a petition, it would be up to a judge whether to decline or accept jurisdiction, and then, the law does not require the child to be removed, Donnelly argued.

He also said the case should be dismissed because defendants have qualified immunity.

Attorney Gregory Wix, representing the victim's mother, said CPS should have known the boy was at higher risk after the father was convicted of abuse, and awaiting a jail term. The death, he said, exposed "a crack in the system, a hole in the system."

The Office of Children's Ombudsman said Montcalm County CPS should have acted "at the earliest point it became aware of Mr. Braman's egregious acts of abuse ... ."